Great Conversations: March 10, 2009
Seymour Hersh, Larry Jacobs, & Walter Mondale
March 10, 2009
Since the second World War, America has been locked in an ongoing constitutional crisis over the authority and roles of the legislative and executive branches. Most recently, the Bush administration’s handling of “enemy combatants” precipitated intense inter-branch disputes over the conduct of American foreign policy and national security. Join three experts as they review the constitutional framework of the American model of governance.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh is widely acknowledged as the most influential investigative reporter of the past 40 years. His focus is, and has always been, the abuse of power in the name of national security. His ground-breaking exposes include many landmarks in American journalism including uncovering the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, the C.I.A.’s secret bombing of Cambodia and, most recently, the Abu Ghraib prison abuse in Iraq. Mr. Hersh worked as a reporter for The New York Times from 1972-79 and, since then, has been a freelance writer and regular contributor to The New Yorker on military and security issues. He is the author of seven award-winning books, most recently Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib.
As the 42nd Vice President of the United States, Walter Mondale redefined the role of the office. He served as a two-term U.S. Senator from Minnesota, Democratic nominee for President in 1984, and U.S. Ambassador to Japan from 1993 – 1996. Since then, he has been practicing law, teaching, lecturing, and writing. He is the author of the book The Accountability of Power: Toward a Responsible Presidency as well as numerous articles on domestic and international issues. Vice President Mondale received a B.A. in political science and law degree from the University of Minnesota and served as a Distinguished University Fellow in Law and Public Affairs at the Humphrey Institute. In 1990, he established the Mondale Policy Forum which brings together leading scholars and policymakers for annual conferences on public policy.
U of M Political Science professor Larry Jacobs holds the Walter and Joan Mondale Chair for Political Studies and is director of the Center of the Study of Politics and Governance at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. An expert in American political history, he is the author of several books including Politicians Don’t Pander: Political Manipulation and the Loss of Democratic Responsiveness which has won numerous prestigious awards. Jacobs earned a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University and joined the faculty of the U of M in 1988. For the last several years, he has co-taught an undergraduate course on America’s Constitutional Crisis with Vice President Mondale.
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